


ugly beating thing

by Idiosyncrasies



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-02
Packaged: 2017-12-16 20:53:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/866497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Idiosyncrasies/pseuds/Idiosyncrasies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the third Wednesday in October, somewhere between the first and second sip of afternoon tea, in that time when the sunlight hit Regina’s desk just right to warm her hands, when Regina got the news.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ugly beating thing

**Author's Note:**

> prompt response for a friend

It was the third Wednesday in October, somewhere between the first and second sip of afternoon tea, in that time when the sunlight hit Regina’s desk just right to warm her hands, when Regina got the news.

It was Archie. Of course it would be Archie, Regina would realize later, because he would be the only one who could even put words around it, who could beat back enough emotion to be there for everyone else. To  _guide_  them, as he’d said once in a session.

“Henry’s gone,” he said, and Regina’s body went numb; her priceless cup slipped from her fingers and shattered over the desk. Somewhere in the distance, crying that could only be Snow’s. On any other day, Regina would have been satisfied.

Regina forgot the details, forgot the two days between Henry’s last breath and the service in the park, forgot to eat, forgot to sleep, forgot, for five minutes, that Emma was always watching, even with teary eyes. For five more minutes, Regina forgot about the chasm between them and they cried together.

The only thing Regina knew after that was the park, the white casket, her darling boy looking too much at peace.

“You should take this with you,” she told him as she reached up to her chest. It was so easy, really, to push past the skin and the blood and bone and to wrap her fingers around the awful beating thing. Pulling it out was like plunging into ice, but then nothing was so bad at all anymore.  She tucked her heart into a cloth and set it above his hands and leaned down to kiss his forehead.

“It’s always belonged to you anyway."

The last magic she ever did was to preserve the casket in crystal and bury her son in the ground.


End file.
